RSS News Feeds

CIA to Release More Papers About Nazi War Criminals

Associated Press
Monday, February 7, 2005; Page A05

The CIA has agreed to release more information about Nazi war criminals it hired during the Cold War, ending a standoff between the agency and the group seeking the documents, Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) said yesterday.

DeWine was lead Senate sponsor of a 1998 law that required all U.S. government documents related to Nazi war crimes to be declassified, but the CIA had resisted giving up details about the work performed by agents with Nazi ties.

The law has led to the release of more than 8 million pages of documents, including 1.25 million from the CIA, which showed that the agency or its predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services, had a relationship with some individuals later found to be war criminals.

"This is good, this is really what we anticipated when we wrote the law," DeWine said yesterday. "We have an obligation to bring this information out for the Holocaust survivors and their families and the public."